COMPOSERS’ BIOGRAPHIES & PROGRAM NOTES

In addition to new works by two San Antonio composers, we present this evening music by three internationally renowned composers, composed in 1952, 1963 and 1990, respectively. Two of these composers, Henry Cowell and John Cage, are frequently listed among the "bad boys" of Twentieth Century American Music. The other, Lowell Liebermann, has been written up as one of the “good guys” of contemporary music. In contrast to Cage and Cowell, Liebermann and other composers have returned to an earlier model and are often referred to as "neo-romantics" or "new tonalists." Music lovers thus can greet a new century with a legacy of dazzling variety from the old, ranging from "old" romanticists, expressionists and early atonalists through serialists, experimemtalists, neo-classicists,electronic music and now a return to the tonality of romanticism. What an exciting time to be alive!

John Cage, whose 4’33” is the second work on the program, first presented this composition at Maverick Concert Hall, Woodstock, New York, on August 29, 1952, with David Tudor at the piano. On July 29 of this year, the Maverick Concerts presented pianist Daniel Epstein in this same work. But the reaction was bound to be quite different from what many audience members felt that Friday night almost 50 years ago, when Cage, who was best known then for his pieces for "prepared" piano and music based solely on rhythm, got their attention with a spectacularly different work. One writer accused Cage of having gone too far this time! Some were infuriated, dismayed when Tudor got up from the piano bench at the end of the performance. Cage noticed people whispering, some got up and left, and many remained angry for years afterwards.

Had Cage deliberately tried to shock his audience? He denied ever having done anything gratuitously for shock. Nor was he interested in insulting his audience. Among the patrons of this first performance were Mr. and Mrs. Henry Cowell, the latter one of Cage's teachers in the 1930s. No, for some time Cage had been hinting at writing a piece that would force the audience to think differently about the sounds they heard. He had already done that, to some extent, in his compositions based on rhythm alone ("noises," some called them). His study of Zen Buddhism had helped him understand how harmony with nature ought to be manifested in music and that art and life should be one. So he wrote 4’33” as a piece to challenge the audience to listen intently to what is going on around them. Maverick Concert Hall, which opens into the surrounding forest, was an ideal venue for this. But Ruth Taylor Concert Hall, which is fully-enclosed, can be just as successful. All it takes is to keep our ears and minds open.

Many are surprised to learn that 4’33” is not specifically for piano. It can be performed with any instrument or combination of instruments, but the tradition of the first performance has been generally observed. A performer, an instrument, the score, a stopwatch and an audience are all that are necessary, along with simple, non-obtrusive action by the performer to mark the end of each movement and of the piece. The lengths of the movements seem to have been arrived at by means of ideas from the Tarot, with note values determined by using the I Ching. Years later, Cage stated the piece can be as long or as short as the performer wants, but most have kept it to the length of its title. There are, oddly enough, four different editions (two different manuscripts, six different versions). There have been choreographed performances, which clearly go against Cage's instructions, and there have been recordings, which Cage would not have approved, either: "...It can be played any time, but only comes alive when you play it. And each time you do, it is an experience of being very, very much alive."

Henry Cowell, like Cage, was a West Coaster (San Francisco vs. Cage's Los Angeles). At age 13, he composed Adventures in Harmony, his first piece using the "tone clusters" for which he is famous, as well as innovative techniques like striking the keyboard with fists, forearms and elbows. Four years later he was placing objects on piano strings for a performance before the San Francisco Musical Society, foreshadowing Cage's prepared piano pieces. Cowell gave Cage some lessons in 1935 and sent him to study with the recently-emigrated Arnold Schoenberg. Cowell himself, however, continued to develop the theories he had expressed in New Musical Resources (1919), like clusters, free dissonant counterpoint and polytriadic harmony. He was sentenced to 15 years in San Quentin on morals charges in 1936, but was released in 1940, into the custody of Percy Grainger (!) He was pardoned the following year by Governor Earl Warren. He continued an active career as composer, teacher and theorist until his death, in Sandy, New York, in 1965. He taught at the New School for Social Research, Peabody Conservatory, Mills College, Eastman School of Music and Columbia University and was elected to the American Institute of Arts and Letters in 1951. Yet Henry Cowell was essentially unschooled.

As early as 1935, in his Third String Quartet ("Mosaic"), Cowell was one of the first to use indeterminate techniques, allowing the performers to choose the order of the five movements. In 1963, he composed Twenty-Six Simultaneous Mosaics, which calls for the performers to make even more choices with concentrated short selections, some atonal, others beautifully tonal, even Bach-like. The piece lasts between eight and nine minutes, parameters which can be inferred from three separate versions by the group Musicians Accord contained in a two-disc collection of music by Henry Cowell (which also includes the "Mosaic" Quartet by the Colorado String Quartet).

Although Henry Cowell composed hundreds of pieces, including twenty symphonies and much choral music, his works remain unknown to the general classical music public. Could it be, as some have stated of John Cage, that he is more important for his writings and ideas than for his music? Perhaps that accurately assesses his current reputation, but for Cowell, all these activities were inseparable from one another. We believe that more exposure to his music will help the public embrace him more enthusiastically, so that he will no longer be seen as merely an underground influence on several generations of composers who barely, if at all, acknowledged their debt to him.

The last few years have seen the name of Lowell Liebermann come to the forefront among American composers. Not yet forty, the composer has won awards from ASCAP, BMI and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. More importantly, commissions and performances by major orchestras and soloists have brought the music itself to the attention of significant audiences. Now recordings are making it even more widely known. This past season, his Symphony No. 2 had its first performance in February, by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (where he is Composer-in-Residence), and the New York Philharmonic premiered his Trumpet Concerto in May, with soloist Philip Smith. A BMG recording of three concerti composed for flutist James Galway and conducted by the composer has received much circulation through stores and record clubs; Delos will soon release a recording of the DSO premiere of the Symphony No. 2, with a new recording of the Flute Concerto by Eugenia Zukerman; and Cedille Records has just released a recording of Liebermann's 1984 Viola Sonata by violist Cathy Basrak (newly-appointed Associate Principal Viola of the Boston Symphony Orchestra) and pianist William Koehler. As if all this were not enough, Liebermann spent the summer at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, where he was Composer-in-Residence and had many of his works played by soloists, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and chamber musicians, including the composer himself as collaborative pianist.

Why has this Juilliard-trained (B.Mus., M.Mus. and D.M.A.) American composer become such a "hot commodity?" Perhaps it's his relatively accessible music. Don't expect it to sound like minimalism or movie music, though. In fact, don't expect it all to sound alike. Liebermann has found a variety of ways to say what he wants within a tonally-based style and has already published 69 numbered works in nearly every form, including an operatic treatment of Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The piece we will hear this evening, Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op. 32 was commissioned by Susan and Elihu Rose and dedicated to the Eroica Trio, who gave the first performance at the Cape and Islands Chamber Music Festival on August 8, 1990. Other chamber compositions by Mr. Liebermann include two string quartets; two sonatas for cello and piano; quintets for piano and strings and piano, clarinet string trio; two pieces for violin and viola; and sonatas for violin and piano, viola and piano, bass and piano, flute and piano, flute and guitar and flute and harp.

H. V. Doyle, Jr.